What's the difference between a hall stand and a coat stand?

A hall stand is the fuller piece. It combines hooks with, commonly, a mirror and a section for sticks or umbrellas, and thirteen titles use the term. A coat stand is the simpler tree: a pole of hooks with no mirror and no umbrella base. That phrase appears in twenty-two titles, making it the more common of the two.

How old are most of these?

The dated field runs from 1790 to 1930. The bulk sits either side of 1900, with the 1900s and 1920s the two heaviest decades and the 1910s and 1930s behind them. Ninety of 160 listings give a clean year. The rest say only "19th Century", "Edwardian" or "Victorian", or carry no date at all.

Why are so many of them French?

France accounts for a quarter of all titles, more than any single material does. "French" appears in forty titles, against brass in thirty-one and oak in twenty-three. Much of that is Art Deco brass in the Pullman or railway style, along with simulated bamboo wall racks, which is turned timber worked to imitate bamboo nodes.

Are antler and horn racks common?

They're a small but persistent minority, around a dozen across the samples. Stags horn hallstands, cow horn hat and stick stands, mounted horn hooks and Black Forest carved eagles and chamois goats' heads all appear. They sit in the upper reaches of the range, and an antler stand sits alone at the very top.

How often do hat racks come up for sale?

About twelve a year come to market on Sellingantiques, and 64 different dealers have listed one. It's a category almost nobody specialises in and almost everybody passes through, so what's available at any moment tends to be scattered across forms rather than clustered.

What are the unusual forms that turn up?

One-offs in the record include a rack formed as three crossed halberds, a horseshoe-shaped rack, an equestrian crop hook with a horse's head, and a Regency mahogany 'snake' hall stand. Each appears once and nowhere else. The steady populations are wall racks of brass, oak or bentwood hooks, and free-standing coat and hall stands.